Biography of the character[edit]

Background[edit]

Bosch's mother was a prostitute in Hollywood, who was murdered in 1961 when Bosch was 11 years old. His father, whom he met later in life, was a powerful defense attorney. He spent his youth in various orphanages and youth halls, as well as with the occasional foster family. After learning of his mother's murder, Bosch, then living at a youth hall, dived to the bottom of the pool and screamed until he ran out of air and then swam back to the surface. This event is referenced during many of the Bosch novels. Bosch later joined the United States Army when he was seventeen years old after getting his foster father to sign the enlistment papers giving his consent for his minor foster son.

In Vietnam, Bosch was a "tunnel rat" (nicknamed Hari Kari Bosch), with the 1st Infantry Division – a specialized soldier whose job it was to go into the maze of tunnels used as barracks, hospitals, and on some occasions, morgues by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army. While in the enemy tunnels the Tunnel Rats would kill enemy soldiers that they encountered, gather documents for analysis by military intelligence, and then plant C-4 high explosive charges that they would set to detonate after they exited the tunnels. Once while on R&R leave in Hawaii he went AWOL. But he returned to his unit and served two tours of duty in Vietnam.

Bosch also has a daughter named Maddie, who he used to see twice a year. Maddie spent most of her time with her mother and Bosch's ex-wife, Eleanor, in Hong Kong. Eleanor, who was a star attraction at a Macau casino, had a personal security guard, Sun Yee, who was also her boyfriend. In an attempt to rescue Maddie from Chinese thugs, Eleanor was killed, and now Maddie lives with her father in Los Angeles.

LAPD career[edit]

After returning from Vietnam and his honorable discharge from the Army he joined the LAPD and in the books rising to the rank of Detective III (a position which entails both investigative and supervisory duties and is the LAPD equivalent of Detective Sergeant).

While in the LAPD, Bosch worked in the prestigious Robbery Homicide Division (RHD) for five years, but was drummed out by an Internal Affairs Division investigation involving Bosch's shooting of a suspect (The Dollmaker) who was later linked to nine murders. Following the IAD investigation, which was conducted by Detectives Pierce Lewis and Don Clarke, Bosch was sent to Hollywood Division and assigned to the homicide desk. Lewis and Clarke also investigated Bosch in The Black Echo. At one point, Bosch left the LAPD and worked as a private investigator for three years. He left retirement and returned to the LAPD at the conclusion of The Narrows. After his return, Bosch was assigned to RHD's Open-Unsolved Unit, a cold case squad. Bosch transferred out of Open-Unsolved and into Homicide Special during the time between Echo Park and The Overlook.

During his time in the LAPD covered in the novels, Bosch was in Hollywood homicide and worked with Frankie Sheehan (Bosch's partner in RHD, who was later murdered in Angels Flight), Jerry Edgar and Kizmin 'Kiz' Rider, who were the other members of Bosch's team in Hollywood homicide. The 2004 Limited Edition DVD that was available with The Narrows included an excerpt of a speech real-life LAPD Chief William Bratton made at the Police Academy, in which he publicly asked Harry Bosch to return from retirement (Connelly was on the stand behind listening to the speech; see Blue Neon Night: Michael Connelly's Los Angeles). In The Overlook, Connelly gave Bratton an approving endorsement (albeit without using his name) for "raising the morale of the rank and file" and for giving "Bosch his job back" (pp. 145–146 of the Vision paperback edition).

In The Closers, Bosch is once again partnered with Rider, while Edgar remains in Hollywood homicide. Bosch remained partnered with Rider until her transfer to the Chief's office after being shot during Echo Park. During The Overlook, Bosch partnered with Detective Ignacio 'Iggy' Ferras, a younger detective with whom Bosch had not yet developed a solid rapport. Not a stranger to being second-guessed, Bosch has been investigated by the LAPD's IAD multiple times, and was always cleared.

Personal characteristics[edit]

In all of the books, Bosch lives in a house on stilts at 7203 Woodrow Wilson Drive<Michael Connelly - the Reversal ISBN 978-1-4555-5447-8 (pbk.) in the Hollywood Hills. The money that financed Bosch's home came from a production studio for a TV mini-series in which actor Dan Lacey portrays Bosch in a case the detective had worked that involved a serial killer; Bosch also worked as a technical advisor on the mini-series. His house was later damaged during the Northridge earthquake shortly before the book The Last Coyote. After his house was condemned and demolished, he had a new one built on the same road, still facing out over the valley.

Bosch has an active love life; he has had relationships with cops and civilians alike, with usually one love interest per book. Bosch has a daughter, who, as of 9 Dragons, is living with Bosch, after his ex-wife Eleanor Wish (a former FBI agent, ex-con and subsequent professional poker player, whom Bosch met in The Black Echo and married while on a case in Las Vegas, and who left Bosch in Angels Flight), was killed in Hong Kong. Recent stories find Bosch linked in a close relationship with FBI agent Rachel Walling. The liaison formulated in The Narrows and heightened romantically during Echo Park, but Walling broke off the relationship at its conclusion. Walling returned in The Overlook on a strictly professional basis, and she has since resumed a relationship with reporter Jack McEvoy. Walling notes in The Scarecrow that her relationship with Bosch broke up in part because Bosch was still in love with Eleanor Wish.

Bosch stands a few inches short of six feet and is described as wiry. His muscles are like nylon cords, strength concealed by economy of scale. He has a moustache and has brown hair that is by now graying (The Black Echo). Bosch's eyes are the other key aspect of appearance; they are brown and nearly black, and were mentioned often for this reason in A Darkness More Than Night. Connelly gives a good clue as to how he visualizes Bosch when in The Overlook Rachel Walling tells Bosch that "You look like House" (actor Hugh Laurie).

Bosch is always finding himself in conflict with authority, whether with his lieutenant, or a Deputy Chief of Police (specifically Irvin Irving, Bosch's recurring nemesis until forced to retire at the end of The Closers, and now a city councilman), or the FBI. His confrontational side is usually attributed to his strong sense of right and wrong, coupled with little regard for his career. At the end of The Overlook, Connelly states this trait can be described in a single word: "relentless".

Bosch has a half-brother, Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles attorney who makes his first appearance in the novel The Lincoln Lawyer, although he briefly appears in a flashback in The Black Ice as a boy. Haller is the legitimate son of the attorney who fathered Bosch. In the second Mickey Haller novel, The Brass Verdict, it is revealed that Harry Bosch has known for years of the relationship, but Haller was unaware of it until the end of the book.[1]

The original Bosch was famous for his religious portrayal of earthly sins (mostly debauchery) and their violent consequences. In several of the books there are parallels suggested between the hell in the paintings and the events of Bosch's life.

Besides the Connelly series, Harry Bosch has made cameos in several other authors' books. Bosch has appeared in books by Paula Woods, Joe Gores, and Robert Crais.[2] Likewise, during an October 16, 2008 book-signing in San Mateo, California, to promote The Brass Verdict, Michael Connelly informed the audience that Bosch also appeared in a cameo without identification in Connelly's novel Chasing the Dime.

Personal Firearms[edit]

Bosch carried a Smith & Wesson Model 5906 9mm semiautomatic pistol as his duty weapon for many years. The S&W Model 5906 is authorized by the LAPD for duty carry by its officers. It was a popular weapon in the LAPD prior to the North Hollywood Shootout. He kept a Heckler & Koch P7 9mm semiautomatic pistol at his house, in the front closet wrapped in an oil wrap, as a back-up weapon. When he retired from the police department, he carried a Glock Model 27 .40 Caliber semiautomatic subcompact pistol. When he returned to active duty with the LAPD, he started to carry a Kimber Ultra Carry II.45 ACP Caliber semiautomatic pistol. Many officers in the LAPD started carrying .45 caliber pistols after the North Hollywood Shootout bank robbery incident. The LAPD authorized the heavier caliber pistol ammunition for its officers in response to officers facing heavily armed bandits in the North Hollywood shootout. He had an additional handgun, a Smith & Wesson .44-caliber revolver, in The Black Ice. It was given to him by the father of a murdered girl. It was kept at home but he took it with him on his trip to Mexico to have a gun which he could check at the border crossing so as to show he had not carried it into Mexico. That done, he hid his carry gun, the 9mm S&W pistol, under the spare tire of his Chevy Caprice. The cop at the border station observed that the left-handed Harry was checking in a right-handed revolver.

According to Connelly, "a fair amount of changes" were made "to the world of Harry Bosch" "in making the shift from page to screen". In the series, Harry "is 47 years old and a veteran of the first Gulf War in 1991, where he was part of a Special Forces team that cleared tunnels. He has now been a police officer for twenty years with a one year exception when he re-upped with the Army after 9/11, as many LAPD officers did. He came back to the force after serving in Afghanistan and again encountering tunnel warfare."[7]

On 4 November 2013, the "13 day shoot" began in Los Angeles, while Connelly kept a daily "set journal".[8] The pilot was released on Amazon Prime in February 2014, and was commissioned as a full series in March 2014.[9][10]